Mauritius, 9 - 12 October 2012
In the beginning of October during four intense days, the Members of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) together with the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa/African Trade Policy Centre (UNECA/ATPC), the Southern African Trade Hub (SATH), the East African Community (EAC) Secretariat, the Southern African Customs Union (SACU) Secretariat, the Trans Kalahari Corridor (TKC) Secretariat and the World Customs Organization (WCO) met in Mauritius to develop a regional strategy for Information and Communication Technology (ICT).
During the event, the WCO presented ongoing initiatives of relevance for ICT-development such as Globally Networked Customs (GNC), the WCO Data Model, Unique Consignment Reference (UCR), the Customs Enforcement Network (CEN) and the Single Window Compendium. The event allowed for the development of a comprehensive picture of ongoing regional and national initiatives including ICTcomponents. In addition, a field visit covering the application of electronic certificates of origin, elearning and second hand vehicles valuation was conducted upon initiative of the Mauritius Revenue Authority. Regarding the development of the SADC Regional ICT-strategy, the WCO highlighted the importance of including globally relevant issues such as automation and management of supporting documents, as well as the importance of linking ICT-developments to procedures and processes, included for instance in the WCO Revised Kyoto Convention and the SAFE Framework of Standards